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JACKPOT FEVER! Tickets in hand, they're powered up with dreams

By John Collins, jcollins@lowellsun.com

Updated:
11/28/2012 12:50:48 PM EST

"There's your winner," said Susan Duncan, pointing to her friend Fabiola Peters, of Lowell, after they bought Powerball tickets in Tyngsboro on Tuesday. It was Peters' first time playing a lottery of any kind. SUN / JOHN COLLINS

For the first four decades of her life, Fabiola Peters of Lowell had never once gambled a penny on a raffle, slot machine, scratch ticket, or a lottery game, she said. Nothing at all.

Until Tuesday, when Peters accepted a single Powerball ticket as an early Christmas gift from a friend, Susan Duncan, at a gas station/convenience store in Tyngsboro near the Pheasant Lane Mall.

The two friends contributed to what was a feverish day of Powerball ticket sales in all 42 states and the District of Columbia that offer the game, lottery officials reported.

The Massachusetts Lottery reported sales of $1 million in Powerball tickets on Sunday, $2 million on Monday, and by mid-afternoon Tuesday another $1 million worth of tickets had been sold. By midday Tuesday, with a nationwide social-media buzz fueling what was already an announced record jackpot of $425 million, lottery officials upped their jackpot estimate for tonight's drawing to $500 million.

"I was watching a TV report about the $500 million jackpot, and how everybody's just so excited about it," said Peters. "My friend was surprised that I'd never played any kind of lottery in my life before, never. So she said, 'Well, let's have you try it out.' And I thought, 'Why not?' "

Convinced Peters' "beginner's luck" will make her the most famous first-time Powerball player/winner ever, Duncan made a pact with her friend to buy each other a new car of their choice if one of them wins.

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At Bridgeview Convenience in Tyngsboro, customer Red Burleson purchased 11 Powerball slips containing more than 50 ticket-number combinations on behalf of a group of co-workers who pooled their money.

If he does win a share of the record jackpot, Burleson said he hadn't yet thought of any specific items he might spend the money on.

"With the success that group of workers had in the Midwest, now playing in pools seems to be the way to go," said Burleson.

"You work all your life, it's always the dream to hit the jackpot so you take a shot, you know?"

Burleson said he came to Bridgeview to buy his tickets rather than stand in the long line of Powerball ticket buyers that he found had formed in front of him at a gas station near the Pheasant Lane Mall at midday.

There has been no Powerball jackpot winner since Oct. 3. Though it's the largest Powerball jackpot ever, the largest United States lottery jackpot in history remains the $656 million Mega-Millions jackpot that was shared by players in three states in April.

"When the jackpot gets over $300 million is when the ticket buyers go nuts, and sales pretty much double," said Doris Coutu, co-owner of Roger's Variety store in Hudson, N.H.

Though Coutu sells many Powerball tickets in bunches, including to employees of various area companies who play in pools, there is a segment of players who just ask for one ticket, she said.

"It's good for business, of course, because not everybody but a lot of people who come in (to buy a Powerball ticket), also buy other things while they're here."

Panchal said workers for different office pools have come in and bought batches of 100 tickets at a time. One person bought $300 worth of tickets for his office, he said.

Panchal said the store's cut is 5 percent of what people pay.

Steve Suomala of Fitchburg was in JD's Variety Tuesday spending $40 on tickets for himself. He said he plays "here or there," but stepped up his purchase Tuesday because of the big draw.

"You can't win if you don't play," said Suomala.

Nancy Gravelle of Fitchburg bought five tickets. She mistakenly believed the tickets were $1 each, not $2, because she buys lottery tickets so rarely.

Lottery officials credit their strategic decision to double the price of a Powerball ticket to $2 in January as being largely responsible for creating today's historic jackpot.

The increase was part of a plan to more rapidly build jackpots, and thereby generate greater publicity and buyer interest, lottery executives said. Judging by the frenetic pace of ticket-buying witnessed at area stores on Tuesday -- at a time when the drawing for the record jackpot was still 36 hours away -- their marketing plan appeared to be working perfectly.

Whatever jackpot figure may be posted atop the toteboard by 10:59 tonight, when the drawing takes place, players ought to note that the federal government keeps 25 percent of the jackpot for federal taxes. Also, most states retain between 5 percent and 7 percent of the jackpot for state taxes.

The federal and state tax impact means a single Powerball winner opting for the upfront lump-sum cash payment would surrender at least 30 percent -- $90 million -- to the government, leaving the exceedingly lucky someone with take-home pay of "only" $210 million.

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